OBITUARIES, UNITED STATES. 



601 



O 



OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. Jan. 1. GREG- 

 ORY, J. W., a distinguished agriculturist, re- 

 former, and pioneer in many great enterprises ; 

 died in New York City, aged 70 years. He was 

 born in England, but had resided in the United 

 States for nearly forty years. In his youth 

 he was a skilful agriculturist. During the 

 early days of California he established d-rego- 

 ry^s New York & California Express. For 

 many years he had been a member of the 

 Farmers' Club. Of late he was an agent for the 

 introduction of the ramie-plant and the castor- 

 bean in the South. He helped to establish the 

 Cosmopolitan Conference, and was its first 

 secretary. He was also intimately connected 

 with the International "Workingmen's Associ- 

 ation in New York City. 



Jan. 1. WADS WORTH, CRAIG W., a briga- 

 dier-general of volunteers in the late war, and 

 son of the brave Major-General James Wads- 

 worth Avho fell in the battle of the Wilder- 

 ness ; died at his residence in Geneseo, N. Y., 

 in the 30th year of his age. He was distin- 

 guished for his brilliant and daring gallantry 

 during the war, and since the death of his 

 father had been the head of the great Wads- 

 worth family, whose domains were larger than 

 some of the German principalities. 



Jan. 3. BRITTAN, NATHAN, a distinguished 

 teacher and inventor; died at Adrian, Mich., 

 in the 65th year of his age. He was born 

 in Spencer, Mass., September 2, 1808, and re- 

 ceived his early education at the academy in 

 Hawley, Mass., whence he entered Brown Uni- 

 versity and graduated in 1837. After his grad- 

 uation he engaged in the teacher's profession, 

 at Rochester, N. Y., where he was associate 

 principal of the Collegiate Institute then un- 

 der the charge of Dr. Chester Devvey. He re- 

 mained there till 1845, when he removed to 

 Lyons, N. Y., where he taught with eminent 

 success for five years, when he established 

 himself in Adrian, Mich. In 1851 his atten- 

 tion was called by an impressive occurrence 

 to the inadequacy of the lightning-rods in use 

 in that part of the country, for the purposes 

 of protection. He immediately devoted him- 

 self to the study of the laws of atmospheric 

 electricity, aud invented a new conductor, 

 known as the " continuous copper strip," 

 which was patented and received with very 

 general favor. This led him to abandon his 

 profession and to engage in the business of 

 promoting the adoption of his invention. In 

 this occupation he spent the remaining years 

 of his' life, residing at different periods in 

 Lockport and Rochester, in Detroit and Chi- 

 cago, and returning in 1868 to Adrian. In 

 each of his places of residence he was actively 

 engaged in religious efforts and in enter- 

 prises of social improvement. His death was 



almost instantaneous, and was occasioned by 

 slipping and falling on the ice as he was walk- 

 ing in the street. 



Jan. 4. CLARK, Rev. PERKINS KIRKLAND, a 

 Congregational clergyman and teacher, born 

 in Westfield, Mass., December 8, 1811 ; died in 

 Charlemont, Mass., aged 60 years. He gradu- 

 ated from Yale College in 1838, having previ- 

 ously taught for some years, and soon after his 

 graduation engaged as a teacher in Savannah, 

 Ga. Returning in the autumn of 1840, he 

 entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, 

 but the next year transferred himself to the 

 Yale Theological Seminary, whence he gradu- 

 ated in 1843, but was a tutor in Yale College 

 from 1842 to 1845 inclusive. In 1846 he was 

 a teacher in the Normal School at Westfield, 

 Mass., but resigned to enter the ministry at 

 Huntington, Mass. He continued in the pas- 

 torate in Western Massachusetts from this 

 time till his death. 



Jan. 4. NATJDAIN, ARNOLD, M. D., a promi- 

 nent citizen and political leader in the State of 

 Delaware ; died at Odessa, in that State, aged 

 82 years. He was born in Appoquinnimink 

 Hundred, Del., January 6, 1790. He was of 

 Huguenot stock, his grandfather having emi- 

 grated to Lower Delaware at an early period 

 in the history of that colony, and having 

 been known there as "Huguenot" Naudain. 

 Dr. Naudain graduated at Princeton College 

 in 1806, and completed his medical studies at 

 the University of Pennsylvania in 1810. In 

 1826 he was Speaker of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives in the Legislature. In 1830 he was 

 elected to the United States Senate, to succeed 

 Hon. Louis McLane, who had been appointed 

 minister to England, and resigned in 1836. In 

 1841 he was appointed collector of customs 

 at Wilmington. He enjoyed a high reputa- 

 tion, and attained great success as a physician. 

 He was many years an elder in the Presbyte- 

 rian Church. 



Jan. 5. PORTER, Brigadier-General AN- 

 DREW, a gallant officer long and favorably 

 known in the army ; died in Paris, aged about 

 52 years. He entered the Military Academy 

 at West Point from Pennsylvania in 1836, but 

 remained only through a part of the course, 

 though he bore there as everywhere else the 

 reputation of an agreeable companion and a, 

 cultivated gentleman. Leaving the Academy 

 in 1837, he returned to civil life, from which, 

 in 1846, he was appointed a first-lieutenant in 

 the Mounted Rifles, and greatly distinguished 

 himself during the Mexican War, winning, for 

 gallant and meritorious conduct, successive 

 brevets up to that of lieutenant-colonel, gain- 

 ing meanwhile his promotion to a captaincy. 

 At the commencement of the late civil war he 

 was promoted to the command of one of the 



